eCentral

Tuesday June 30, 2009

Animation magic

By CHOW HOW BAN in China


Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne shared a few ‘secrets’ at the 5th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou, China, recently.

MOVIE critics somehow found flaws in even a great flick like Kung Fu Panda which enjoyed tremendous worldwide box office success last year.

Why did Po’s (the beloved main character and clumsy panda) father turn out to be a goose? Why were the animal characters in the film not all native to China? The screenwriters and directors of the Hollywood animation listened to feedback, but what mattered most to them was to tell an imaginative yet human story about a panda.

The goose dad problem was easy to solve – “Po was adopted,” offers director Mark Osborne during a recent interview in China. “We were just trying to tell a dramatic story and that was one way for us to make the story more dramatic and interesting.”

Osborne posing with fans during the 5th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou.

The tall and friendly American director explains that the creative team behind the first Hollywood martial arts animation film simply felt that an unexpected twist to the conventional story-telling norm would give a nice kick (no pun intended) to the story.

Under the direction of Osborne and his partner John Stevenson, Kung Fu Panda won over American viewers’ hearts when it premiered at the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, California, last June. The film made US$215mil (RM763mil) in theatres in America making it the third-largest weekend opening for a DreamWorks Animation, behind Shrek The Third and Shrek 2.

It grossed more than US$600mil (RM2.13bil) worldwide, with earnings of over one million ringgit from major cinemas on its first day of opening in Malaysia. It went on to win 10 Annie Awards, including Best Animated Feature (the highest honour given for excellence in animation) in January.

In China – where the movie is set – Kung Fu Panda earned about 110mil yuan (RM57mil) in two weeks. It became the first animated film to break the 100mil-yuan (RM52mil) barrier in the nation.

In China, some quarters questioned the quality of their animation industry – why weren’t they able to make such a successful film based on the Chinese culture themselves?

Osborne says from the very beginning the production team had wanted to make a film in tribute of Chinese culture and kung fu movies.

“Our priority was to make a film that people would like. We wanted to be universal but we were especially concerned with the Chinese audiences liking the film, appreciating it and feeling that we did an honourable job to present the country and ideas,” he says.

He attributes the success of the movie to its fantastic story and the technical details of the characters (in terms of facial expressions), and scenes (martial arts choreography and settings).

“We wanted it to be subtle and rich with as many details as possible which would help tell the story in a dramatic, significant and funny way. All these details added up to the final product.”

Osborne made his maiden trip to China for the 5th China International Cartoon and Animation Festival in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in May, when hundreds of his fans looked to catch a glimpse of the director in person. Kung Fu Panda won the Best Full-Length Animation Film Award during this festival too.

Chinese inspiration: Kung Fu Panda director Mark Osborne and his production team are huge fans of Hong Kong kung fu films and wanted to make a respectable martial arts animation flick.

Osborne says his production team was given a free hand to make the best version of film when the project was first conceived in 2004.

He says they just focused on their job without thinking too much about box office figures as they knew that a great product would surely be well received by viewers.

During his talk at the festival, Osborne showed the preliminary sketches of Po and some Chinese traditional background settings of the film. Interestingly, Po was initially as skinny as a monkey but after several revisions, the panda had grown fatter. There was also the initial idea of Po living in a bamboo forest but the proposal was dropped.

When the famous scene of Po and his Master Shifu chopstick fighting for a bao (bun) was projected on the overhead screen, the audiences discovered that it was different from the version in the movie. There were no background colours and just a few simple strokes. The audience quickly learnt that what translates from a storyboard to film is a long journey, which even embodied the study of the elements of Chinese martial arts and culture.

Osborne’s team spent a long time making the characters as lively and as human as possible. He then explained how they made Master Oogway realistic in one of his favourite scenes where the grandmaster tortoise and Master Shifu indulge in a conversation under a peach blossom tree.

“Cartoon characters should be as realistic as possible with weight and expression,” Osborne offers. “Many people on our team, including me, are big fans of Hong Kong kung fu movies. We respect kung fu films and wanted to make a respectable martial arts animation.”

As Osborne was about to round up his talk, the audience waited with baited breath hoping to hear what the secret of Osborne’s success was.

“Well,” Osborne says “there is no secret ingredient” ... just as Po’s father had told Po that there is no secret ingredient in his noodle soup and one just has to believe it’s special if he wants to make something special.

“I wish I had a formula that I could share with you but there isn’t any. You just have to keep believing that you are making a great film for your viewers,” Osborne concluded.

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